THAI-New Air Injection Technology for Heavy Oil Recovery and In Situ Upgrading

Abstract

Abstract THAI-"Toe-to-Heel" Air Injection, is a new EOR process, which integrates advanced technology and horizontal well concepts, to achieve a potentially very high recovery of heavy oil. It can also realize very substantial in situ upgrading by thermal cracking, producing upgraded oil to the surface. The process operates in a gravity stabilized manner by restricting drainage to a narrow mobile zone. This causes the flow of mobilized fluids to enter directly into the exposed section of a horizontal production well. The process can be operated on primary production, asnew technology, as a follow-up to existing technologies, or asa co-process where the advantages of high thermal efficiency are equired. This is achieved by concentrating the energy required for oil mobilization, recovery and thermal upgrading in the reservoir. Combined with clean technology design, THAI offerspathway, to future economic success for the heavy oil industry. Three-dimensional, semi-scaled experimental tests on light "Forties Mix" oil (30.7 °CDATA[API), Clair, West of Shetlands medium heavy oil (20.8 °CDATA[API), and heavy Wolf Lake oil (10.95 °CDATA[API) show that a well-controlled, narrow mobile oil zone is created just ahead of the combustion front. The width of this narrow zone depends on the characteristics of the heavy oil at reservoir conditions and the degree to which the very high viscosity of the cold oil seals the horizontal producer well. Well sealing can be augmented by a novel sleeve-back technique, which allows perforated downstream sections of the well to be shut-in. The application of this technique enabled the light oil test to mimic the operation of a heavy oil reservoir using THAI. Very high oil recoveries were achieved in the tests, up to 85﹪ OOIP. During wet in situ combustion (ISC), Wolf Lake oil was upgraded to 20 °CDATA[API, achieving a reduction in the cold oil viscosity from 100,000 mPas to around 50 mPas. Introduction Horizontal and multi-lateral wells are being introduced in ever increasing numbers to achieve further gains in reservoir productivity. Two hundred horizontal wells were drilled a decade ago. Now, one company has reported drilling more than 2,100 horizontalwells in North America(1). Advances have also been achieved in the depths drilled, reaching 8,761m(2) and lengths now reaching up to 11 km. Multi-lateral wells, with four or more side-tracks, are not uncommon and offer further optimization gains. Moreover, this technology will accommodate reservoir faults and problems of structural geology as regular design factors so that strategic placement of the well path is achieved. More recently, a new technique to control gas and water production rates by varying the fluid entry points has been successfully tested(3). The most important advantage of horizontal wells is the increase in the reservoir contact area compared to a vertical well. Horizontal wells have created new possibilities for the implementation of advanced IOR methods, especially in thermal recovery.